DIXFIELD — When school districts had to make budget cuts during the recessionary years of the 1970s and 1990s, art, music or physical education were often the targets.

Not so this year, said Superintendent Tom Ward at the Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10 board meeting Monday night.

"Now, research tells us that the right side of the brain needs to be developed (the part governing creativity). Businesses look for people who are creative," he said. "We eliminated or reduced physical education, and now, we have childhood obesity data. What were we thinking?"

The board will begin looking at a proposed 2010-11 budget at its next meeting on Feb. 22. At that time, presentations by several cost centers will be presented. Then, during the next couple of months, a firm figure will be adopted.

Ward said the starting point will be slightly above the current year's $34.1 million operating budget. From there, funding will be cut and virtually everything will be on the table for study.

The district is losing a total of about $900,000 in state General Purpose Aid to Education for the current and next fiscal year.

Ward said that number could have been much worse for a district with a student enrollment of 3,000 pupils.

Factors that prevented a much larger state aid cut included a 1 percent combined reduction in state valuation among the 12 towns that comprise RSU 10. That figure was attributed to a significant reduction in the valuation of the town of Rumford because of cuts at the paper mill. All other towns gained value.

The second factor leading to fewer state dollars lost was a 2 percent decline in student enrollment.

Ward said many other districts lost a greater percentage of students. State aid is based on property valuation and student population.

Although these two factors prevented state aid cuts from being worse, Ward said positions will likely be lost during the budget development process, particularly from special programs funded under stimulus money.

He said about a $500,000 will be lost during the next fiscal year, and in turn, those programs, such as in remedial reading and math.

"During the budgeting process, we will determine what we need, then decide what we can live without, then prioritize," he said.

He said the reductions in state aid follow three years of flat funding.

"And now we're looking at three years of state reductions. We've gone tremendously backwards," he said. "If we keep all the programs we have, we'll have to go to the communities for the increase."

eadams@sunjournal.com